ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica—The Jamaica Labour Party’s Delroy Slowley says “love” and community service triggered his shock parliamentary election win over the People’s National Party’s Basil Waite in St Elizabeth North Eastern on Thursday. 

“If you love the people, the people will love you; if you support the people, the people will support you,” Slowley told the OBSERVER ONLINE by telephone early Friday. 

 Preliminary data Friday morning showed Slowley polled 7,029 votes to Waite’s 6,524. In victory, Slowley overturned a PNP margin of 1,524 votes polled by former Member of Parliament, Evon Redman, while defeating the JLP’s Saphire Longmore in 2016. 

Only once before, has the PNP lost St Elizabeth North Eastern. That was in the ideologically charged atmosphere of 1980 when the Edward Seaga-led JLP swept all before them, winning every seat west of St Ann along Jamaica’s north coast and west of Kingston and St Andrew along the south coast. 

The PNP did not contest the 1983 election.

Thursday’s triumph by Slowley was part of a “wipe-out” for the PNP which – according to preliminary data -saw the Andrew Holness-led JLP win 49-14. JLP successes included all constituencies west of St Ann on the north coast and west of Manchester on the south coast. 

Holness’s personal popularity has been cited by analysts as a huge factor in the massive JLP victory. 

But for Slowley, who is a Santa Cruz-based businessman, there was no doubt that his community work down the years – assisting farmers and householders, fixing roads, implementing small water projects and other infrastructure- proved pivotal in St Elizabeth North Eastern. 

He told the OBSERVER ONLINE that he would now intensify his efforts in that regard.  

“I can’t wait to get back out there to continue the transformative work for North East St Elizabeth,” said Slowley.  

“I plan for this constituency to be the envy of Jamaica,” he said.  

“This victory is not about Delroy Slowley, it is about service to the people,” he added.  

Slowley described himself as “speechless” at the sacrifice of supporters who went out to vote defying the threat posed by COVID-19. 

“I feel humbled,” he said. 

Slowley first came to political prominence in 2016 as an independent candidate in St Elizabeth North Eastern, gaining 696 votes – benefitting from schisms with the PNP’s constituency organisation at the time.    

After that 2016 election, Slowley openly toyed with the idea of joining the PNP, even being hugged and pecked on the cheek by then PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller on a political platform in Santa Cruz.   

But within two years, Slowley had joined the JLP, claiming it was by far the better-led and more effective political organisation. He was swiftly elevated as the JLP’s candidate for St Elizabeth North Eastern. 

– Garfield Myers